—THE CAROLINA TIMES SATURDAY, MARCH 11, IfffS
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Even In Her Retirement,
Shell Be Nurse At Heart
7 Don't Really Feel Like It's Been 30 Years'
(Reprinted with special permission of John
Huff from Sunday's Durham Herald)
After more than 40 years of helping people stay alive
and well, you can't just quit.
You may retire, but you'll still lend a hand when it's
needed, if you're there and if you can.
"Once a nurse, always a nurse," says Mrs. Evelyn C.
Dudley.
She had just finished cleaning out the desk she first
came to as a full-fledged, certified public health nurse for
the Durham County Health Department on June 1, 1941.
It may not have been that actual first desk, where Mrs.
Dudley sat when she wasn't training midwives or dealing
with polio scares, but even if it wasn't she said, "I don't
really feel like it's been 30 years."
Tuesday was Mrs. Dudley's last day with the health de
partment and, as she puts it, "I lived to see a lot of
changes and I got to meet and help a lot of people."
In the early 19405, Mrs. Dudley recalled, "public health
was really coming into being in a big way."
A young nurse, inspired by an aunt, she had graduated
in 1930, the first class, from one of the first nursing
schools for blacks, L. Richardson Memorial Hospital in
Greensboro. Her aunt was director of nursing.
After some field work in Greensboro, she went to her
first job in Greenville, S C., and in 1934 married Samuel
L Dudley, a young Rocky Mount school teacher. There
were also nine-month stints as a tuberculosis nurse in
Georgetown County, SC.. and even in Staten Island, N Y.
"Then, with the development of public health," said
Mrs. Dudley, "a nurse had to be qualified and certified to
work in public health, so I enrolled in the Medical College
of Virginia in Richmond."
"I had to come to Durham County, North Carolina, to
do my field work, and I liked it here," she said. "When I
left they told me to leave an application behind in case a
position came open."
"Veneral disease was coming on the scene, and I went
to work in Anson County under the Reynolds Fund
14 months in the cotton fields of Anson County.
"I had forgotten about cotton fields," said the Char
leston, S.C., re.
"But an o, ning came up and I arrived back in
Durham in June of 1941, a full-fledged employe and staff
nurse I've been here ever since."
Many trends and many changes have come since 1941.
But there's always been enough work for a public health
nurse.
"When I came here we had midwives," she continued,
"I guess there were at least 10 or 12. We supervised
them, trained them, visited in the homes and tried to
teach them how things were done."
There were 1,629 live births in the county that year, and
139 of them were delivered by midwives.
"Soon after that our supervisor at that time felt that
the many hospitals in Durham County and all the clinics
the health department had set up could give people good
prenatal care, so we did away with midwives."
"Way back than we had a lot of TB, we had a lot of VD
and it was the era of communicable diseases.
"A lot of our time was spent visiting. Putting up the
quarantine signs on a house where there was disease,
ch"cHng and helping with the patients, going back and
taking the signs down.
"We had measles, diphtheria, scarlet fever, and every
once in a while we'd have a few cases of typhoid fever,"
she recalls.
In 1941, for example, according to health department
statistics, there were 12 cases of typhiod fever, 21 of
diphtheria and 1,085 whooping cough cases in which many
babies died. In 1971, there was not a single case of any of
these diseases.
"One thing I'm glad I lived to see," said Mrs. Dudley,
"is the improvement in the streets of Durham over the
years. We've had to travel and walk in a lot of slush and
mud to get to our patients.
"I guess the hardest time was the polio scare in the
early 19505. We had clinics spread out all over the city. I
mean that was a job.
"We had to go into every school and vaccinate every
child. At that time we were still giving the polio vaccine
with needle shots and you know how kids can jump
around," she said.
After that battle, Mrs. Dudley was ordered to stay in
the hospital for two weeks by her doctor. "He told me I
was just tired and worn out," she said.
Ther were also physical examinations for all Durham's
first, third and sixth graders, said Mrs. Dudley, and
later, the junior high school pupils.
"You can't do anything in the schools or wherever,
though, unless you have the cooperation and understand
ing of the teachers and the principals. You've got to have
what we call in public health, 'rapport.'
~ —- —-—r
Highlights At
By MONICA GUNN
Tuesday night was the bat
tle of the Teachers vs. Stu
dents. The teachers slipped by
in winning against the students
hut week in a student-teacher
basketball game. Teacher play
ers were Coaches Speight and
Odom, Misters Brown, Boyd,
and Evans. Cheering the team
to victory were Mesdames Bas
n*y, Young, Barr, Miller, and
How*. On hand to defend the
*udent'i reputation against the
tea chars were Michael Thomas,
Timothy Thomas, Ricky Gen
try, Clinton "Mickey" Mcin
tosh, Robert Brown, and Earl
Roberts. Karen Morgan, Carol
TVica, Kathy Connant, Debbie
Hall, Susan Nelson, and Nancy
Muon, who are seniors cheered
for the student side. The game
was sponsored by the Nstionsl
I
. -MONICA GUNN
Honor Society.
March 17th in the Paul
Sykes Gymnasium, the Sopho
more class will sponsor a Don
key Basketball game. The en
tire game will be played while
tiding donkeys. Anyone in
terested in participating may
contact any of the sophomore
class officers. Last Saturday
the Bible Club collected cloth
ing and other articles for the
"There have been a few times when I was in a situation
where there was no rapport, so I just cooled it, made it a
nice little visit and went back later to try again.
Fortunately there hasn't been too much of that."
In the early 19605, Mrs. Dudley said, "there was an in
crease in the aging population. People started living
longer. That meant we had to provide additional medical
care for the older people, and show them how to keep
their independence, how to learn to live on less than they
had before."
People were being sent home earlier from the hospital
than before, about that time, Mrs. Dudley continued, not
only because hospital business was increasing, but also
"to cut down on those tremendous hospital expenses for
patients."
"So we added a bedside nursing program. We have to
have written orders from the patient's doctor to protect
both the patient and ourselves, but we made the visits
every other day, every two weeks, or when ever the
doctor said it was necessary for the patient.
"I was made head nurse at the OBGYN (obstetrics and
gynecology) so I had to attend to that, as well as the bed
side program, other clinics and schools.
"We are not just school nurses as many people think,"
explained Mrs. Dudley, "we have our own districts of
Durham and we take care of everything within that dis
trict."
With the added duty of the bedside program, and the
mere six days per week that the nurses worked, said Mrs.
Dudley, "we had to de-emphasize something, so we
stopped visiting every single baby born in Durham
County.
"We had visited all the mothers and babies before, no
matter if they were poor, rich or what, but we cut it down
to all premature and adnormal babies, even though the
mothers could always call and ask us for help or a visit
for any baby.
"The 60s also brought the 40-hour work week," safd
Mrs. Dudley, "and that was one of the truly great
changes that I've lived to see in public health."
Earlier there bad been adoption of the merit system for
salaries, a more extensive form of record keeping, an
added emphasis on mental health, dealing more with
"alcoholism and drugs," and there was the formation of
the family planning clinic.
"In the mid-605," recalled Mrs. Dudley, "there was
integration.
"Black nurses worked In white areas, white nurses
worked in black areas, in the schools, in the houses and
clinics. Most of the nurses were used to working in the
big hospitals with blacks and whites both, so there was no
problem about that.
"Conditions were a little strained, though, with the
militarism in the country and in this city, and some of us
had a little mixed emotion about going into homes, black
or white.
"I didn't have any problems, though," said Mrs.
Dudley. "And that bridge has been gapped."
As things have grown more complex in the world, the
public health business has also become complicated in
ways, said Mrs. Dudley.
"We the nurses have to have an over-all view of all
agencies and their policies for one thing," she said,
"there's no one-way street now, so if there's something
that's needed and we are called in, we have to know
where that service is available.
"I'm really happy to see the welfare department offer
ing more to the people.
"I've lived to see changes in the population, increasing
and getting older, changes in housing, people don't live
like they used to, and changes in the environment over
all.
"I've seen a lot of nurses come into this department,
develop and grow and then go on to live their lives.
"I have associated with people of all levels and it's
been a very rewarding experience to me. I've seen, and I
still do even today, many of my patients and their chil
dren that I thought would never make it. Any little thing
that I did, whether I realized it or not, to help them, is
probably the highlight of the last 30 year 3."
But for Mrs. Dudley, a short, attractive woman, who
credits "the good Lord and a good husband" for her good
looks, there's still a lot more she plans to do and see.
A member of the boards of directors for Easter Seal
organization in Durham and the Durham YWCAs, and a
staunch member of St. Joseph's AME Church, she says
she will remain active in all affairs. She is also a mem
ber of Chi Eta Phi national nursing sorority and national
and local professional nursing organizations.
Her husband, a retired Durham City school teacher,
likes to fish, "so I might learn how to bait the fish hooks
for him," she said.
"But, you know, you still have to stay involved with
people and do what you can to help," said Mrs. Dudley.
flood victims in West Virginia.
Every Wednesday in Stu
dent Council has been set aside
for 'Rap Day.' Students with
complaints such as changing
or clarification of some school
rules or any school matter
which you'd like to discuss are
invited to come. Anyone with
a ticket from their last hour
class may attend or you may
obtain a ticket from one of the
Student Council advisors. Now
is the time to speak out.
MAME needs your support.
The senior class play MAME is
in need of many props and
articles, such as material, hats,
suits, old long dresses, or any
thing you have to contribute ---
even money. Tickets go on
sale April Ist.
From Gunnie's Dusty Files:
Boy, Freddie, are you in trou
ble now!
I The Tennessee Valley Au
thority (TVA) plans to spend
$43 million this year in pollu
tion control research.
Mrs. Dudley
With Messages
Of Farewell
(xaff ntw
Carolina Barnes and
Mary C. Evans Hold
Special Workshop .
The Carolina Barnes and
Mary C. Evans Missionary
Society of the St. Joseph
A.M.E. Church held a special
workshop Sunday, February
20. Its purpose was to acquaint
and refresh new and older
members about the structure
of the Wo mens Missionary
Society. Job descriptions of
officers and standing com
mittees and the building of an
alive Society was discussed.
The speaker was our own
Mrs. Sarah Horry Jones, Dean
of Women Missionary Institute
of the Second District. The
worship was well attended and
was educational and stimulat
ing. Hostess were Mesdames
Minerva Evans, Farrell and
Smith.
Burlington House
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